Masi: Visiting the House That Carried Amarone to the World

Masi is the house that carried Amarone around the world, and its winery in Gargagnago, in the heart of the Valpolicella Classica, can be visited by appointment. If one name explains why a once-local dried-grape red now sits on lists from New York to Tokyo, it is this one. This guide covers where the estate is, what you’ll taste, and how to arrange a private visit.

Why Masi is worth visiting

The Boscaini family has been growing grapes in the Valpolicella Classica since the late eighteenth century, and is now in its sixth generation under Sandro Boscaini — a man the Italian press long ago nicknamed “Mister Amarone”. The nickname is earned: no producer has done more to codify, study and export the appassimento method, the drying of grapes on racks that defines Amarone.

Masi is also a house of invention. Campofiorin, created in 1964, pioneered the double-fermentation technique that gave Verona an entire category of reds between Valpolicella and Amarone. And through its ties with the Serego Alighieri estate — home of Dante’s descendants since 1353 — a visit here folds seven centuries of Veronese history into a single glass.

Where it is and how to get there

The winery is in Gargagnago, a hamlet of Sant’Ambrogio di Valpolicella at the western edge of the Classica zone, about 25 minutes by car north-west of Verona. The location matters to the wine: the flagship Amarone comes from slopes that face Lake Garda and catch the evening sun — hence its name, Costasera, “the evening coast”. Masi also runs Tenuta Canova near Lazise, on the lake itself, with a wine bar and the Wine Discovery Museum; it is a separate property, easily combined with a Garda day.

What you’ll taste

The range runs from historical reference points to single-estate bottlings:

• Costasera Amarone della Valpolicella Classico DOCG — the flagship: roughly 70% Corvina with Rondinella and a little Molinara, dried on racks and built for decades.
• Campofiorin — the 1964 original of the double-fermentation style, and still the clearest introduction to how Verona thinks about structure without appassimento’s full weight.
• Serego Alighieri wines — bottlings from the historic estate of Dante’s heirs, made with Masi.

Tours pass through the fruttaio, where grapes rest on bamboo racks through the autumn, and the ageing cellars — the most instructive walk-through of the appassimento method available in the region.

Masi and the wider Valpolicella

Masi represents the appellation’s classical, outward-facing school. To understand what the territory looks like at other scales, pair it with the family estate of Tommasi in Pedemonte, or with the artisans of the high valleys — Quintarelli above Negrar remains the counterpoint every serious drinker eventually seeks out. Our Amarone guide maps the appellation itself.

How to arrange your visit

Visits are by appointment, and booking ahead is essential in high season. Enouting arranges the private tour and tasting, transport from Verona or Lake Garda, and a sommelier who connects the cellar to the wider appellation. The Taste of Valpolicella day is the classic frame; the Surprise Wine Day widens the day to cellars we choose across the Veronese appellations.